Some 77% of homebuyers waiting on the sidelines say they’re prepared to buy a home once mortgage interest rates fall, according to a new study from Maxwell.
The mortgage fintech’s recent Sidelined Home Buyer Report, derived from a survey of 1,000 potential homebuyers looking to enter the market over the next year, found a market constrained by financial barriers but populated by a pool of motivated buyers. Unsurprisingly, nearly 60% say high interest rates are an obstacle that has kept them from buying a home.
However, while buyers are largely sitting out the market in wait of better affordability, they appear to be ready to pounce; 39% of would-be buyers in Maxwell’s study say they’re somewhat prepared to buy a house, while 38% say they’re very prepared to do so.
Just 23% say they aren’t prepared: 16% say they need to improve their finances, while 7% say they don’t think they’ll find a suitable house.
Many have already taken steps to expedite the buying process once they feel market conditions are more favorable. Sixty-one percent — more than three-fifths — of respondents have connected with a lender to get prequalified or preapproved. (Among those would-be buyers, 53% spoke with a national bank, 29% talked to a community bank or credit union and 18% reached out to an online lender.)
“Today’s homebuyers … have had ample time to organize their finances, perform market research and scour home listings,” said John Paasonen, co-founder and CEO of Maxwell. “This extended waiting period has created a unique type of demand driven by exceptionally strong motivation, high preparedness to act and meaningful life pressures — like a new job or a growing baby. For lenders, this segment presents an unusually immediately actionable opportunity once mortgage rates hit the tipping point.”
That tipping point for more than a third of buyers looks to be a 5.5% interest rate; 36% of participants in Maxwell’s study cited the threshold as the interest rate at which they would consider it a good time to buy a house. Another 33% said it would take a mortgage rate of less than 5%; 21% said it would take an interest rate of 6.0% or below.
